KT’s 5G Vision to Be a Platform Business

KT’s recently reappointed Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu outlines a three-year vision towards 5G that involves reducing the firm’s heavy reliance on the telecom industry shifting growth focus to non-traditional telco areas such as the media and smart energy. KT expects that by 2020 already 20-30% of its revenues will come from these new areas by becoming a network-based platform business.

Leaders or China Mobile, DoCoMo and KT working under 5G SCFA Partnership

Korea Telecom (KT) Reappoints Chairman: Just a week after Hwang’s appointment to serve for a second term as Chairman of KT -Korea’s second-largest mobile carrier- he os already being recognized for his results to normalize the firm’s weakening profitability and draw specific plans to lead the coming 5G network era. “Non-telecom sectors will account for some 20% to 30% of our sales by 2020,” Hwang’s said in a meeting with executives Friday, calling for the need to transform the company into a platform business operator with its expertise in big data management.

KT’s 5 New Revenue Areas and its Platform Business: Toward that end, the company chief said he would focus more on its five new revenue areas ― media, smart energy, security, intelligent traffic control systems and healthcare. “We should leap into an intelligent network-based platform business player, shaking off the image as a traditional mobile carrier,” Hwang said. The intelligent network describes the connection between people and internet of things (IoT) devices, driven mainly by big data and data-based technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI).To achieve the vision, KT is expected to take advantage of its massive big data capabilities.

“For the past three years, we have laid enough of a foundation to tackle new challenges and achieve a huge leap forward in our business,” Hwang said. Under the intelligent network framework, the company will focus on generating more results in the new revenue areas over the next three years, Hwang said. As part the new vision’s first step, KT is seeking to demonstrate for the first time its pilot 5G services at next year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

KT’s Keynote at the Comming MWC: Hwang will fly to Barcelona to attend this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC). He will give the first keynote speech on Feb. 27, discussing the latest mobile trends such as AI and the IoT.

In Parallel, KT Extends Its Commitment to the 5G Alliance with China Mobile and DoCoMo to 2022: In 2015, KT, China Mobile and DoCoMo created a task force for the 5G networks. Accordingly, the three companies issued the “5G Joint Cooperation Declaration.” to share 5G visions and roadmaps which are specialized in the Asian market, the joint verification of major 5G technologies and systems, the cooperation with international organizations to lead the global 5G standards and the continuous development of new 5G services and markets. As the agreement has been extended to 2022, the three mobile operators in Korea, China and Japan will make the best use of special demand for their respective upcoming Olympics – the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.